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Wednesday, June 6, 2012

Sorry for the aggressive title, I'll explain in a minute. But first, I'm still alive! And I'm starting my summer semester. While I don't expect to be able to post regularly, I would like to update more often, mainly because there is so much that I want to share. So expect to see short posts from me more frequently.

If there is something that summer brings around that I definitely don't look forward to (besides the heat), it's the solicitors. Maybe it's because my naivety got the better of me a few years ago when I locked myself into an expensive 5-year contract with a security company. Or that time in college when a teenager selling magazines door-to-door talked me into paying extra for a children's magazine subscription that instead of being delivered to a local hospital as he promised, was delivered to me. For a year.

While my ability to be assertive and to just say no has gotten much better over the years, I still find it distressing to have to ward off salespeople at my own home. My safe haven. If I wanted a sales pitch, I'd hang out around the stand-alones at freakin' Opry Mills Mall.

There was a conversation about this recently on the 16th District Facebook page, and someone mentioned that it might be a good idea to have a 'No Trespassing' or a 'No Soliciting' sign. This prompted me to search for a non-obtrusive sign for my front door. Cute but with a clear message, I say. For these kinds of things I always search Etsy first. And Etsy did not disappoint!

I ended up going with this little guy from Lisa Bees Crafts. Only $7, but it was the free shipping that sold me. The day before my sign came in the mail, someone knocked on my door wanting to sell me steaks. I politely turned them down. The day before that, a cute little kid selling candy bars to raise money for his school. I bought two. Maybe my sign should say 'No Soliciting (unless you have candy and are under the age of 12)."

2 comments:

Cute sign. I just wonder if it works? We've been on the "Do Not Call" list since forever and we still get phone calls all the dang time.

I don't know about you but after the hail storm in March we were overrun with roofing contractors. Literally, they were constantly knocking on the door, or calling on the phone. I finally just got pissed off. When you work out of your house and the phone rings and you think it's business related and it's some idiot selling you a roof you don't need, well ...

Even with my cute little (not as cute as yours) sign on the door and my dog trying to eat them through the door, the door to doors keep coming. I've started thinking about a picket fence with a gate sign. I know they are just doing their job, but I don't do business that way.